Joe V's store plan draws flak

By Allen Jones |
May 15, 2012

Houston District K Councilman Larry Green is gathering information to convince grocery store chain H-E-B to build a full-fledge supermarket in the Brays Oaks community instead of a smaller Joe V's Smart Shop.

Green said his office is working with Brays Oaks Management District to produce data regarding household incomes in the community to bolster his case as to why a larger H-E-B store format can be supported in the area. He said he hopes to present the data to the H-E-B Houston Division president, Scott McClelland.

"We have a call in to him for a meeting next week; so hopefully we will be meeting with him," Green said on May 9.

Green said McClelland previously agreed to meet with him after the two attended a May 1 community meeting in which McClelland outlined H-E-B's plan to build a Joe V's store.

H-E-B plans to build a 61,000-square-foot store in a vacant shopping center at the corner of Braesridge Drive and West Bellfort Avenue. The site previously was home to a Bally Total Fitness.

"Keep Joe V's Out" was printed on flyers that announced the community meeting days before it was hosted May 1 by Brays Oaks Super Neighborhood No. 36 at Welch Middle School. The flyer referred to the grocery store as a "low end" H-E-B.

In an emailed statement, H-E-B Houston Region's public affairs director, Cyndy Garza Roberts, said, "We appreciate the opportunity to visit with a small percentage of Braesridge residents and have made note of their opinions; we are taking them into consideration."

Roberts did not indicate when the grocery store would open, but said it would create 90 jobs.

Green thinks Joe V's Smart Shop is good for those who want it in their communities, but said that is not the case with residents in the Braesridge area of Brays Oaks. The councilman said the grocery store format caters to apartment dwellers and not to the single-family homeowners.

"We don't support it, and we hope that Scott McClelland listens to the community on this one," Green said.

Donald Perkins, Green's chief of staff, said the council member was among 150 people who attended the May 1 community meeting, which Perkins described as "vocal but organized."

"McClelland gave a PowerPoint presentation and explained the whole model of what a Joe V's is and why they chose the smaller store (for the area)," he said.

Marcy Williams, president of the super neighborhood organization that sponsored the meeting, said that most homeowners in the area are Jewish and want kosher food products.

"What we are lacking in is a grocery store for the Jewish community," Williams said.

She pointed out that the planned Joe V's Smart Shop would be near a synagogue.

Neighborhood residents, she said, are also concerned that a "cash, debit cards or Lone Star Cards" checkout policy of the store could be a draw for criminals.

Five Joe V's Smart Shop stores are in the Houston area. The first opened May 5, 2010 in northwest Houston at Antoine Drive and Veterans Memorial Drive.

The northwest Houston store carries about 9,000 items compared with a traditional supermarket, which has about 37,000 items. H-E-B's move to establish smaller grocery stores is part of a growing national trend among food distribution companies, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a national trade organization that monitors grocery retail trends.

According to FMI's Annual Financial Review for 2010-2011, grocery retailers are focusing on reducing store sizes and optimizing their locations. The median new store size for grocery stores is 50,000 square feet. Slightly more than 28 percent of food distribution companies are building smaller stores than were five years ago.